Online access to specimen images and associated literature: a productive partnership between the Oregon State University Herbarium and Library

Presentation delivered at the SPNHC - NSCA Joint Meeting, 23-27 May 2006, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.The Oregon State University (OSU) Herbarium is an essential resource for biodiversity research in the Pacific Northwest. With over 400,000 specimens, it maintains the world's largest collection of Oregon plant and fungal specimens. The OSU Valley Library is dedicated to creating targeted digital collections in support of academic research. In partnership with the OSU Valley Library, we have digitized the original descriptions (protologues) of 750 Oregon plant taxa represented in the herbarium’s type collection, and imaged the associated 1250 type specimens.\ud \ud The type specimen database was completed as part of the NSF-sponsored databasing of all Oregon specimens in the OSU Herbarium. The compilation of protologues was carried out by the herbarium, while the library obtained reproduction permission from authors and publishers of copyrighted materials. Digital capture of specimens, scanning of original descriptions, data migration and metadata processing was handled by the OSU Libraries' Digital Production Unit. ContentDM is the digital collection management software used. The specimen images and protologues are publically available through the OSU Valley Library Digital Collections:\ud http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/digitalcollections/\ud \ud We will present an overview of the project, describe future directions and discuss some of the lessons learned during its implementation. Our ultimate goal is to make available digitized protologues of all 4500 plant taxa in the Oregon flora. We hope this project will serve as a model and catalyst for other major state and regional herbaria in the United States, ultimately leading to a networked resource that would serve local, regional, and international interests